Abstract
Over 400 California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) died and many others displayed signs of neurological dysfunction along the central California coast during May and June 1998. A bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia australis (diatom) was observed in the Monterey Bay region during the same period. This bloom was associated with production of domoic acid (DA), a neurotoxin1 that was also detected in planktivorous fish, including the northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax), and in sea lion body fluids. These and other concurrent observations demonstrate the trophic transfer of DA resulting in marine mammal mortality. In contrast to fish, blue mussels (Mytilus edulus) collected during the DA outbreak contained no DA or only trace amounts. Such findings reveal that monitoring of mussel toxicity alone does not necessarily provide adequate warning of DA entering the food web at levels sufficient to harm marine wildlife and perhaps humans.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the many volunteers who assisted The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC), members of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Beach COMBERS programme, the crew of the RV Pt. Lobos, R. Kudela for providing the processed SeaWiFS image, and P. Walz for nutrient analyses. This work was supported in part by NOAA/NOS operational funds, NOAA Saltonstall-Kennedy grant programme, the many supporters of TMMC, and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. All authors contributed equally to the work.
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Scholin, C., Gulland, F., Doucette, G. et al. Mortality of sea lions along the central California coast linked to a toxic diatom bloom. Nature 403, 80–84 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/47481
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/47481
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